The Breaking Point
by Noxnocturnum
Summary: Includes character death, angsty stuff, and belated realizations... What happens when one person finally reaches their breaking point?


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I own any of his friends. Just their plushies!

_Warning OOC, depressing thoughts, and Character death._

_Thoughts_

_**Written**_

Speaking/Normal story flow

_The Breaking Point_

_I'm breaking and I know it. I haven't told anyone that I'm falling apart on the inside, or that I'm slowly falling apart externally too. I haven't said anything about how the mission are slowly draining me. I'm so tired, but I can't sleep. I don't know what they'd do, probably make me stay home. Or in a hospital, I hate hospitals. I can't see as well as I used to, and my sense of smell is dying fast. I'm afraid to eat because I can't keep anything down. I'll have to tell baa-chan soon, but I just don't know how. The fox is laughing; telling me he'll be free soon. Says that I am dying... and I'm starting to believe it, well the dying part at least. I know he dies when I do because of he seal and all. I think furface has forgotten though. I don't see much point anymore. I'm still trying for others' sake, but I just can't seem to bring myself to care about **me.** I gave up all hope of self preservation long ago, after all I'll just heal, and what the furball can't heal can't be healed at all. My thoughts are chasing themselves again...  
_

_The truly sad thing is, I know how few will actually care when they find out. I know how many of the villagers will rejoice to hear I'm gone. I don't want to hurt the ones who do care though. Maybe that's why I haven't said anything? Because I don't want the last of my life to be worrying to them, the ones who are precious to me? Ah well, it doesn't matter. If my hunch is right it won't be too much longer until I go. A week, maybe two. I'll tell baa-chan a couple days before it happens, well maybe not. It may be better not to right? I mean she'll probably go all panicky and overwork herself trying to fix me, and at this point I know I am far to broken to be fixed. _

_I'll miss my loved ones, will they miss me as much? I hope they'll be all right. I don't want them to hurt because of me, but I'm sure they will make it through. After all they all have other people that they can rely on, right?_

"NARUTO!"

Naruto jerked out of his contemplation and stared at Sakura.

"What?" He asked.

"About time idiot! We've been trying to get your attention for half an hour now. What the heck were you thinking about anyway? Geez!" Sakura grump-ed.

"Nothing much. What did you guys need?"

"Well we have a new mission. We have to deliver a message to someone in wind country."

"All right, can we stop and see Gaara?" Naruto asked bouncing up and down, hiding his weariness.

"No. We have to get back as soon as we have the reply." Sakura stated in a no nonsense tone.

"Awwww maan. When do we leave?" Naruto whined.

"In two hours. We're meeting at the gate."

"Got it. See ya there." With that Naruto ran off.

_Well that kind of sucks. If we were allowed to visit I could have told him good bye. Maybe I could write him a letter. HEY! That's it! I'll write letters to everyone. That way they'll have something for when I'm gone. That's a pretty good idea!  
_

The mission took a week, it was fairly simple. All they had to do was drop off the letters, wait, and then bring back a reply. Every night Naruto sat by the fire writing his letters while everyone else was eating. Kakashi asked once what he was writing while trying to peek at the papers in Naruto's hand. All he got in response was Naruto's hands covering the papers and a "You'll see when it's time." This left him a little puzzled at the cryptic answer but he let it go.

Day by day over the mission Naruto felt himself growing weaker and he knew that his time was running out. Two days after the mission was completed, one day before his birthday, Naruto collapsed on the training field. Kakashi immediately took him to the hospital where Tsunade examined him. As she walked out of the exam room with tense shoulders she was surrounded.

"Is he OK? What happened? What's wrong with him? What happened?" The crowd asked, staring at the woman's sad face fearing the worst.

"How long has this been going on?" Tsunade whispered, tears starting to gather in her eyes.

"What? What's going on?" Kakashi and Iruka asked.

"Naruto... Naruto's body is shutting down. His body is falling apart. HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN HAPPENING?" She screamed. Everyone looked stunned. No one had noticed anything different about the boy.

"I I I don't know. I haven't seen anything..." Iruka mumbled. "What about you Kakashi?"

"No, nothing seemed to be wrong he acted the same as he always does." The silver haired man replied.

"H-h-he wasn't eating as much on the mission..." Sakura whispered. Everyone turned to her. "He always eats a lot, I asked him if anything was wrong but he said he was fine so I didn't pay any attention after that. I thought he was fine!" She started wailing.

"Can you heal him?" Iruka asked, trying not to cry and hugging Sakura trying to offer some comfort.

Tsunade started to sob. "A a at this point the-th-there's nothing I c-c-can do. Everything is shutting down. His body... it's like he's crumbling from the inside out. At the rate his body is going he only has a couple of hours maybe a couple of days..." She couldn't continue as she collapsed to the floor, surrounded by protests and cries of shock. After a while she managed to collect herself.

"He woke up for a minute while I was trying to help. He just smiled his usual smile," her voice broke a little, "and then he mumbled something about getting the letters. Then he just shut his eyes again, and I couldn't do anything!" She told the grief stricken group around her.

"C-c-can we see h-h-him?" Stuttered a weeping Hinata.

"Yes."

Through the night all of them sat vigil by their friends bedside. Tsunade, Shizune, Kakashi, Iruka, the rookie nine (minus Sasuke,) Asuma, Genma, Raidou, Aoba, Kurenai, Ibiki, Gai and his team, Anko, even the folks from Ichiraku were there. All of them hoping that the little blonde lying on the bed could pull off one last miracle. All of them wishing that they had noticed something was wrong with their little ball of sunshine before this had happened. Early the next morning Naruto took one last gasping breathe, and his heart stopped. Shizune immediately tried to restart it, but nothing seemed to work.

At 6:30, the morning of his birthday Uzumaki Naruto died. They held his funeral three days later. The day of the funeral Kakashi remembered what Tsunade had mentioned about the letters. He also remembered what Naruto had been doing on the last mission they had all gone on. He ran to Naruto's house, and after some searching found them on his desk. He shunshined to the Hokage's office where Tsunade trying to drink her sorrows away.

"Tsunade-sama!" He shouted as he burst into the room.

"What Kakashi?" She asked in a morose voice.

"Do you remember what you said about Naruto mentioning letters? I found them! There is one addressed to "everybody", and then some that are addressed to single or pairs of people."

"What? Give them here!" When Kakashi handed the letters over she looked through them noting all the names. She quickly made a list. "Inform everyone on this list to come to my office immediately!"

Kakashi took off, and soon her office was crowded with everyone whom had been in the hospital room the other night.

"It seems that Naruto wrote us all a letter before he... left us." Tsunade's voice cracked towards the end. "He left one addressed to everyone, and one that is addressed to each of us. I'm going to read the one, and then I will give each of you yours to read in private later, or here if you wish to share. All right... let's begin..."

_**Hey Everyone,**_

_** If you are reading this I'm gone, and before you ask yes I knew this was coming. My body has been falling apart for a while now. I didn't want to tell anyone because I knew that nothing could be done. I don't want any of you to be sad, just remember me with a smile all right? Remember the good things, the fun things, the things that made us smile. You guys were the best things in my life, I don't want to be the worst in yours. Do not blame yourselves for not noticing, I didn't let you. I purposely covered it up because I wanted all of you to be happy. I didn't want you guys to stick me in a hospital either. (Sorry baa-chan, but I really hate hospitals... a lot. I've never really liked them, you know why.) I've left each of my precious people a letter. Some of them were harder to write than others, but you all get one OK?**_

_**A couple of the letters are going to have to be sent out of Konoha so I'm asking that someone please send them for me. I love all of you, and I have only good wishes for you. May you all live LONG happy lives.**_

_**Ja Ne,**_

_**Uzumaki Naruto**_

"The little brat knew! Why didn't he say anything?" Tsunade cried.

"Because he loved us, read what he wrote again Tsunade-sama. He didn't want us to be sad." Iruka said, tears running down his face.

"Very well. Anyone want to read theirs? No, then dismissed." Everyone left and Tsunade tore open her letter.

_**Hey Baa-chan,**_

_** I know you're mad at me for not telling you sooner, but I knew that there was nothing you could do. I figured out what was happening pretty early on. It seems that I was not exactly the healthiest baby, so when the fox was sealed in me it healed everything that was wrong, but it could only heal it for so long. H e said it was a genetic disorder, one that caused the cells in the heart to break down and decay faster than normal. Kind of like cancer but reversed, so instead of uncontrolled dangerous growth my cells were breaking down. This of course caused the rest of my body to break down. My body fell apart faster than the fox's chakra could fix it. So I suppose that I should thank it for extending my life as long as it did.**_

_** I know that your probably blaming yourself, but you need to stop. It's not your fault. It's never been your fault. Not with me, not with Dan, and not with your little brother. You need to stop beating yourself up about it. And do me a favor? Try to cut back on the sake, for me and Shizune. She and I want you to live a long time. I'm not going to ask you to stop gambling (that's like asking the sun not to rise) but you might want to try something new eh? It gets boring playing the same game after a while doesn't it? Oh and stop hiding your storage scrolls in mission statements it was really embarrassing last time we opened one and your bra fell onto Gaara's desk.**_

_**By the way you might want to check out the Hokage monument about now.**_

_**Love you Baa-chan,**_

_**Naruto**_

Tsunade looked out the window and started laughing. There on the Hokage monument was grafiti, similar to what Naruto had done in the academy. The only difference was her face. He had painted a giant water balloon, slugs, and wrinkles on it. Across the forehead was written **"LOVE YOU BAA-CHAN."**

_**Tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...**_

Across town two people sat on a couch crying together. Their letter across their lap. Neither knowing what to say.

_**Dear Kakashi Sensei and Iruka Sensei,**_

_** You're probably wondering why your letter is together right? Well... to tell the truth I've known about you guys for a while. When you two started smelling like each other it was kind of obvious that you were dating. (Heads up, if you don't want Kiba to find out invest in two different soaps. Or at least move in together and tell him you're room mates.) I never said anything because I didn't want to make you guys uncomfortable, and I figured you'd tell me when you were ready... I guess there wasn't enough time was there? I was planning on giving you guys until Christmas, then I was going to ask why you smelled the same all the time.**_

_** Anyways... In many ways this was probably one of the hardest letters I had to write. For two major reasons; there just aren't enough ways to say thank you for everything you two have given me. It's hard to think of what to write here, there are so many things I want to say to you both. But I'll settle with thank you, from the bottom of my heart thank you. For acting as my parent/big brother and feeding me (Iruka,) to protecting me from the villagers beatings. (Yes I knew it was you Kakashi sensei, who else has silver hair that defies gravity? If you really want to hide your identity in ANBU you may want to find a way to cover or diguise your hair.) Then there was all of the time and guidance. I just want you guys to know that I am truly grateful to have met you both, and that I had you in my life. Thank you for the hugs, the advice, the birthday parties, and all the other things you have done for me. I hope that you guys are happy, and that you always remain that way.**_

_** Now I have one little secret to impart; I hid something in your house Iruka sensei, actually two things... To find them you'll both need to look.**_

_**Wishing You the Best With Love,**_

_**Naruto**_

_**P.S You really need to get some new reading material Kakashi sensei. The orange book is getting old. Besides... The blue one's better!  
**_

After a few minutes the two men reread the letter.

"Wait... he hid something here? How the heck did he get in?" Iruka cried.

"I don't think that matters, let's start looking all right?" Kakashi answered.

"O.K. Lets go look."

After an hour of searching they had found to sealed scrolls. After opening the first they found a small pile of money with a note saying: **"This is all that's left of my savings after setting aside some to live on and getting your other gift. It's not a lot, I know, but I want you to have it. Maybe you can use it to pull a prank on the village for me or something, O.K?"** They also found the notorious blue book. The two laughed at this.

"We'll pull a prank that has their heads reeling for him." Iruka sniffled. "Let's check the other one Kashi."

They pulled open the other scroll and unsealed it's contents to reveal an innocuous black box. Opening the box they found two platinum bands. One had a dolphin engraved on the outside with the name Kakashi engrave in the inside. The other had a tiny wolf engraved on the outside, and the name Iruka on the inside.

"He got us engagement rings... He got us engagement rings. He was dying and he got us _engagement rings!_" Iruka started crying even harder than he had when they'd read the letter. Kakashi just stared at the ring in his palm.

"He never thought of himself... not even when he knew he was dying..." Kakashi choked. With tears running down his face he turned to Iruka.

"You know what this means right?" He asked.

"What?"

"That little prankster, he's blackmailing us from heaven into getting married." Both men started laughing while tears ran down their faces.

"Well I guess we should give him his wish the huh? It's not like you haven't been pestering me about it anyway." Iruka laughed.

_**Tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...tilde...**_

In another part of town, in an empty house, Shikamaru sat alone in his room with tears running down his face as he read, and reread a single part of his letter. He sat there, contemplating missed chances and opportunities, and regretting.

"If only I had... If only you had known." He muttered.

_** Shika, I'm going to admit something in this letter that I have never even said out loud. I have been in love with you for years. I know that you probably never felt the same way but I have to tell you, at least here. There were times where I almost told you, but something always happened that made me back off. I had almost reached my breaking point when my heart started to go for the last time. So I finally figured that it was best this way. That way it won't hurt as bad when I go. I never told you face to face, and maybe this is taking the coward's way out telling you that I love you in a letter. A letter that won't even be given to you until I'm gone, but I wanted to be honest with you, I owe you that at least.**_

The rest of the letter faded until only that one piece was visible in Shikamaru's mind, until finally he too reached his breaking point and he started to scream.


End file.
